Book 3: Chapter 13 – Enraged Enlightenment
The Azure Dragon had grown up alone in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts. Ever since it had hatched from its egg five years ago, it was forced to fend for itself. Thankfully, due to its overbearing physical abilities, it not only survived but also thrived.
Unlike Bebe, who was raised under Linley’s protection, being forced to grow in the wild meant that the young dragon had learnt to defend itself through trial and error. Though it had suffered quite a lot in that time when going up against some of the stronger beasts, it had also honed its skill as an apex predator.
If Bebe and the dragon were in the same rank, as much as he hated to admit it, Bebe knew that the dragon would undoubtedly win.
During its time in the wild, the dragon had come close to death on several occasions. It was very much accustomed to pain, but never in its life had it experienced a pain anywhere near the pain it was experiencing at that moment.
If it had been raised around other dragons, it would understand the implications of having its reverse scale attacked, but as it had grown up alone, it didn’t even realise it had a reverse scale, let alone know it should be protected at all costs.
The dragon’s deafening, pained roars continued as it thrashed around, trying to get the little rat off, but how could Bebe let go now that it had a firm hold of its weak point?
Bebe had every intention of continuing to ravage the dragon’s insides when its wings began to flap with all their might. The dragon hurriedly shot into the air, where it flailed around as though its life depended on it – which it definitely did.
Bebe tried to hold on for as long as he could, but ultimately, it became too difficult.
Ace and the others watched as Bebe was flung towards the ground, but none of them, not even Linley, worried too much. They were all well aware of how ridiculous Bebe’s defences were. A fall from that height would do next to no damage to the little Divine Beast, but their eyes suddenly widened when they saw the dragon’s reaction.
As it opened its terrifying jaws, steam suddenly started forming as the temperature in the vicinity plummeted.
“BEBE, LOOK OUT!” Linley called out, terrified when he saw the giant icicle shoot out of the dragon’s mouth like a rocket.
Even though Bebe’s innate defence was nothing short of miraculous, between the size and speed of the spear of ice, Linley and even Bebe knew that it was capable of causing severe damage, and as he was still in mid-air, Bebe had no way of dodging.
Fortunately, Bebe’s last attack appeared to have done more harm than they initially thought.
Despite being no more than 10 meters away at the moment it launched its attack, the giant icicle whizzed straight over Bebe’s head.
Just as Linley took a sigh of relief, he heard Ace’s heart-wrenching shout ring in his ear. “AMIRAA, NOOOO!”
The icicle may have missed Bebe, but it continued on its original path flying straight towards Amira.
Amira, who had just been leaning against the tree for support, desperately wanted to dodge, but after Cowart’s attack on her soul and her using [Supersonic] to further enhance Ace’s speed, she could only watch like a dear in the headlights as the icicle shot straight towards her.
Under the threat of losing Amira, Ace set a new personal best as he kicked off the ground 24 times in an instant. With Amira’s [Supersonic] spell still active, he moved faster than ever before, but he was too far away.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Ace watched the icicle get nearer and nearer to claiming Amira’s life, but there was nothing he could do to save her. His heart threatened to burst as tears began to well in his eyes.
Ace, who had experienced the pain of losing a brother, never thought any other pain could compare, but when he saw the gentle smile on her enchanting face as her eyes met his, the pain his heart experienced at that moment dwarfed that a hundred times over!
But just when it looked like Amira would forfeit her life, the sound of fatty’s immature yet unwavering voice lit a spark of hope in Ace’s heart.
“[SMOULDERING SPEAR]!” The overweight teen roared as a fiery spear formed in front of him almost instantaneously and shot forth to meet the incoming icicle.
[Smouldering Spear] was a spell of the seventh rank, so the look of shock on Doehring Cowart’s face could be understood as, despite Julius clearly being a mage of the sixth rank, he was somehow able to insta-cast a spell of a higher level.
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Unfortunately, Amira wasn’t the only one still suffering from Cowart’s earlier attack. Not only had Julius instantly collapsed after forming the spell, the strength of it was also nowhere near what it should be. Instead of the seventh rank, the power of Julius’ [Smouldering Spear] was barely at the peak of the fifth rank.
As the two spells met, Julius’ was the one on the losing side. Fortunately, the icicle had melted to about half the size and slowed in speed, but Ace was still too far away, and Amira was in no position to dodge.
Ace, whose heart was currently on an extremely fast-paced emotional rollercoaster, watched in shock as Linley threw himself in the way of the incoming icicle.
“Ugh!” Linley grunted as his body flew backwards, dragging Amira with him.
Even though Amira’s life was no longer in danger, Ace’s eyes glazed over, and a killing intent far more intense than anything he’d ever shown in the past suddenly erupted from him as he turned his attention back to the dragon.
Bebe squealed unwillingly when he saw the icicle spear straight through his partner. As a magical beast, he was innately less compassionate than humans, so he didn’t care whether Amira lived or died, but that lack of compassion disappeared when Linley’s life was threatened. Thankfully, due to their connection, he knew Linley’s life wasn’t in any immediate danger.
From the moment the icicle had passed over Bebe’s head to the moment Linley had thrown himself in the way, not even three seconds had passed. When Bebe turned his attention back to the Azure Dragon above him, he was still in mid-air, falling to the ground.
As soon as the dragon realised its attack had missed, he took another nose-dive in Bebe’s direction, disregarding its previous attack as though it didn’t exist. It was still suffering severely from the damage the little rodent had caused it. All it wanted was to kill the little rat in the most painful way possible.
But when it was mere meters from its target, the human he had all but forgotten about suddenly appeared behind it. The killing intent being exuded from Ace snapped it out of its wrath-filled daze. The hairs on the back of its winding body stood erect as it felt an emotion it hadn’t experienced before – at least not of this magnitude… Fear!
At that moment, the only thought on its mind was to escape. It wanted nothing but to get as far away from the human behind it as physically possible – even if it meant forgoing a meal that could speed up its growth significantly.
It had every intention of doing precisely that, but just when it went to flap its wings, it felt space suddenly compress around it, preventing it from moving.
Though Ace was once again experiencing another bout of sudden enlightenment, allowing him to comprehend impose, subconsciously, all he could think about was what would’ve happened if Linley didn’t save Amira. A world without Amira wasn’t a world he wanted to live in.
Though Amira had survived, Ace would never allow anyone who put her in such harm to carry on living.
“Die!” Ace said softly as he thrust his glaive forward.
Though his voice wasn’t raised, nor was it giving off any emotion, to the dragon, it sounded no different than the voice of the grim reaper himself.
As the glaive neared the hole Bebe had torn open earlier, the constriction of space only seemed to tighten around the Divine Beast. It could sense that death was approaching, but it was so terrified that it couldn’t even give voice to so much as a frightened whimper.
“Impose? Did a 13-year-old boy just reach the impose boundary?” Cowart muttered in shock as he stared at Ace’s figure standing over the body of one of the most terrifying Divine Beasts to ever live. “No. Judging by the glazed look in his eyes, he should’ve experienced a bout of sudden enlightenment. Still, seeing as he’s already experienced using it, it shouldn’t be long before he genuinely comprehends it…
This child is a little too frightening.”
As Ace snapped out of his enlightened state, he didn’t spare the dragon another glance, nor did he even spend any time or energy thinking about the fact that he had just touched a boundary that he had been dreaming about since the moment he watched it being used by Wukong against Brutus almost six years ago. The only thing – or person rather – on his mind was Amira.
His body flickered as he disappeared from his original position, only to reappear right beside the beautiful light-skinned teen who caused him so much worry.
“Are you okay?” Ace asked softly as he gently helped her up, worried he might hurt her more if he used any more strength.
“I’m fine,” Amira nodded.
Like Cowart, she too had watched as Ace used impose to kill the Azure dragon. But whilst he was shocked, she was filled with endless warmth, knowing that her life being threatened was the cause of his rage.
Usually, the thought of someone feeling the need to protect her like she was some sort of damsel in distress brought her nothing but disgust, but it wasn’t like that with Ace. On the contrary, with Ace, she quite liked it.
It was only when they heard Linley’s groans as Bebe jumped on him and began licking the hole in his shoulder where the icicle had pierced that they stopped focusing solely on each other.
“Thank you,” Ace said with the utmost sincerity. “Thank you for saving Amira. I…
I owe you one.”
It didn’t take a genius to understand that Ace wanted to say he was willing to move on, but they also knew that the assassination attempt wasn’t just on his life. Ace couldn’t bring himself to forgive and forget on behalf of the others, even if he knew they weren’t likely to oppose his choice.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s the least I could do,” Linley replied whilst holding his bleeding shoulder. “You were the one doing most of the fighting against the dragon.”
As he said that, Ace could see the look of longing on Linley’s face, and he also guessed the reason behind it.
From Lauriella, he’d learnt that descendants of supreme warriors who didn’t awaken their bloodlines naturally could awaken it by digesting the blood of other beasts who have a similar bloodline to their ancestors.
“Its blood should be useful to you,” Ace said. “It’ll only go to waste if we take it.”
“I can’t accept that,” Linley said, understanding how valuable the blood of such a dragon was even for those who didn’t share his bloodline.
“It’s fine,” Ace shrugged. “Plus, your little partner did a lot of the work.”
“Thank you,” Linley said, unable to hide his excitement. ‘I’m gonna awaken my familial bloodline!’